Browse Items: 40

This is an excerpt from the book Step by Step Through Modern Square Dance History by Jim Mayo. It describes the situation that had been created by a flood of new calls in the mid 1970’s. Related items illustrate a set of early attempts by Square Dance Systems to create an organized catalogue of calls.

This is caller Jim Mayo's book of dances, dating from the 1950s and into the 1960s. It's a good example of a serious caller's repertoire during this period.For comparison with another well-known New England caller, see Al Brundage's Little Black Book, stored on the website of the Square Dance Foundation of New England.

In 2009 the CALLERLAB Convention in Kansas City included a dance following the Banquet called by all the past chairmen of CALLERLAB who were in attendance that year. This recording is the final singing call at that dance and included each of the participating callers joined in calling to the Gold Star record #712, God Bless America.

The Chicken Plucker routine created by Bill Shymkus appeared in the October 1957 issue of Sets in Order; the same issue contained ads for the new record release by Lee Helsel. This routine is considered by caller and historian Jim Mayo as "a very substantial change in the choreography of square dancing." His lengthy article, originally written in…

Each year's CALLERLAB convention includes a History / Heritage / Tradition session. For several years, this has been titled "Visit with the Legends," at which MWSD callers with long history share stories from their careers.

In a presentation from a CALLERLAB History / Heritage / Tradition session in 2005, Jim Mayo recounts some of the events that led up to the founding of that organization in 1974. He discusses how square dance choreography changed from the common Goal Post routines with the introduction of the Chicken Plucker routine that started in 1957. As modern…

This article by Jim Mayo looks at the first ten years of what is usually called Modern Western Square Dancing. Jim traces the development of the activity in detail, citing specific callers and their influences, and illustrating his comments with links to audio files of live recordings made during the 1940s and 1950s.Jim is the author of Step by…

Docey-doe / Do Paso / Do-si-do / Dos a Dosexcerpt from Step by Step Through Modern Square Dance History by Jim Mayo... Others were more receptive to change. Another action that spread, probably from the Shaw schools, was the Wagon Wheel. It was a break type of action involving a set routine following an Allemande Left from a basic square formation.…

Jim Mayo calls a simple set of hash calls at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. Many of the dancers on the floor had never before experienced modern square dancing—no walkthroughs!—and Jim was getting a sense of how the crowd would respond to that. In this square,…

Jim Mayo calls a series of hash figures at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. Unlike the more traditional figures associated with this dance, which might be reviewed in a walkthrough, dancers faced with Jim's modern style calling just needed to listen carefully and move!…

This is a series of videos documenting Jim Mayo's workshop on Modern Western Square Dance, recorded November 19, 2011. This was part of the Dare To Be Square Weekend held at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, supported in part—including the videography expense—by Country Dance and Song Society.